We have been giving examinations from the day we learnt to write. How many of us would have questioned the effectiveness of exams? We have always confined ourselves to learning only those lessons taught to us in classrooms. Exams should not only be about what is inside the book but also what is outside.
We give our written exams immediately after the course is completed and forget about it at once. This process continues grade after grade and finally, when we think of what we have learnt in all those year, we pull a blank slate. This is the tragic end of all the hard-work and time spent on merely giving written exams.
Therefore, what can be done to make the lessons we learn from school days be retained in our memories and life? To retain the lessons one must either experience or understand them and be able to, if not empathise at least sympathise. Knowledge acquired only out of experience and understanding becomes a part of oneself.
Bringing such changes in teaching will require great co-operation from the faculties as the methods and modes of teaching will be entirely different. This demands for more practical training and skill oriented development than the current method of theoretical testing. Practical knowledge allows the student to think innovatively and question the already established concepts, which are given to them as ready-made ‘recipes’.
Thus, I personally feel that written exams alone serve no useful purpose. Exams should also have an aspect of real life it should not be all about scoring ‘high marks’. It should be about the knowledge gained to live life not just to survive it.
- Radha Kamalakshy Sachin
- Radha Kamalakshy Sachin
[Word Count: 275 words]
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